Davíd Garza A Strange Mess of Flowers (Wide Open)
Since his emergence from UT’s West Mall a decade and a half ago, there’s never been any question of Davíd Garza’s prolificacy. Now, with the release of the 4-CD/1-DVD A Strange Mess of Flowers, Austin’s cottage indie-stry demonstrates the melodic fecundity of Bob Pollard. Unveiled across four hours and 71 tracks – a third of them previously unreleased – is the full scope of Garza’s musical ambition, which is as big as his home star state. A Strange Mess of Flowers is a mélange of sounds and sighs, a rainbow spectrum of tones and emotions. Garza as lyricist is both lover and pundit, realist and romantic – contemporary. The set’s repeated credit, “All Sounds and Words: DG,” is the most impressive of all: The sonic bed upon which Garza lays his words is like a coral reef, teeming with life. Fully half of disc one is unreleased material, last year’s humming “In Eclipse” a shaft of light joined by 1992’s equally loving “How Much Does Your Heart Beat for Me.” Few sincerely indie songwriters can match Garza’s plaintive bedroom voice. With “Joan of Arc,” Jeff Buckley is easily recalled. Other unreleases span the chunky goodness of “Don’t You Got Time” to the nitrous annoyance of “Theme.” The pots ‘n’ pans mystic of “Your Sister’s Leopard Skin Coat” matches the Los Lobos on Mitchell Froom of “Conmigo” and the Red Hot Chili clang of “More Beats.” The second disc is a knockout: The bashing “Work All Night,” segued perfectly out of the dialing “KBRN,” is as electric as Jacob Schultze’s guitar, while the infectious tropicalia of “One Drop” is also unreleased. Reggie Rueffer’s violin caresses a Garza vocal as sensual as Caetano Veloso. The ring of “Spirit” is nothing less. In fact, a claptrap like “My Honey Don’t Name Names” almost seems designed to ease one down from the highs of disc two. Its 3am backup, “Almost There,” continues the trend, the disc ending with scenester kiss-off “Lullabye of Barland.” Sadly, the second two CDs don’t match the journeys of one and two, and the 40-minute DVD, while amusing, doesn’t add much weight to the endeavor. Not that disc three doesn’t have its moments, like the simple, sticking “Cold World” and piano-bound “Fleshwound.” “Haunt My Heart” should’ve remained in the vault. The last disc winds down gently, beginning and ending instrumentally, making stops at “The Cannibal Club” and John Frusciante’s house (“Whyspy”). A spidery “Recluse” chases “Butterflies” all the way to “Italia” at the end. A Strange Mess of Flowers, Garza’s beautiful bouquet, briars and all.
This article appears in July 16 • 2004.
